Table querying

a table and table technology, applied in the field of search for information, can solve the problems of not all information may be easily accessed by a user, the current search engine or question answering system cannot take advantage of the large quantity of information contained in tabular format including tables, charts, fact lists

Inactive Publication Date: 2006-08-03
MICROSOFT TECH LICENSING LLC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] In addition, the AI component can be trained explicitly or implicitly to determine which tables, such as on the Web, are more useful to the user than others. Therefore, the less useful tables are less likely to undergo the conversion process

Problems solved by technology

The amount of available information or data maintained such as on the World Wide Web (“Web”) is vast and almost limitless.
However, not all of the information may be easily accessed by a user.
For example, current search engines or question answering systems are unable to take advantage of the large quantity of information contained in tabular format including tables, charts, fact lists, etc.
As a result, conventional question answering systems severely restrict the amount of information retrievable by the user.

Method used

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Examples

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Embodiment Construction

[0018] The subject invention is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the subject invention. It may be evident, however, that the subject invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the subject invention.

[0019] As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and a computer. By way of illustration...

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PUM

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Abstract

The subject invention relates to a system and/or methodology that facilitate converting structured data (e.g., tabular information) into natural language, thus making it available to question answering systems and search engines. More specifically, the system and method employ the vast quantities of natural language on the particular storage system, database, network, or server that a user wishes to search. For example, the system can utilize natural-language based information located on the Web to assist in the task of converting structured data into natural language. In particular, the system can find at least one sentence or sentence fragment on the Web that refers to at least one tuple (e.g., row) in a given table. Following, those sentences can be generalized across all or substantially all tuples in the table. The resulting body of text can be used by the question answering system to answer user queries.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The subject invention relates generally to searching for information and in particular to searching data maintained in a tabular or other structured form indirectly by associating such data with related data in a searchable language form. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The amount of available information or data maintained such as on the World Wide Web (“Web”) is vast and almost limitless. However, not all of the information may be easily accessed by a user. For example, current search engines or question answering systems are unable to take advantage of the large quantity of information contained in tabular format including tables, charts, fact lists, etc. This is largely because they depend on information that is encoded as sentences in natural language. As a result, conventional question answering systems severely restrict the amount of information retrievable by the user. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] The following presents a simplified summary of th...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): G06F17/30
CPCG06F17/30554G06F16/248
Inventor BRILL, ERIC D.RICHARDSON, MATTHEW R.
Owner MICROSOFT TECH LICENSING LLC
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